Abstract

Climate change vulnerability has become prominent over the past decade in policy and academic literature. The impacts of climate change are considered to be highest in Least Developed Countries (LDCs) and Small Island Developing States (SIDS) compared to the other coastal nations. Furthermore, past national-level assessments of climate change vulnerability of fisheries sectors have indicated LDCs are most vulnerable than SIDS. We argue that the apparent higher vulnerability of LDCs relative to SIDS highlighted in previous assessments of the fishery sector is mainly due to methodological choices during these assessments, which conceal the vulnerability of the fisheries sector in SIDS. The latter can have widespread consequences for SIDS in the climate change debate. Guided by a vulnerability framework comprising three components – exposure, sensitivity and adaptive capacity - we have conducted a new national-level vulnerability assessment of the fisheries sector in LDCs, SIDS, and other coastal nations. Our results indicate that the vulnerability of the fisheries sector in SIDS is higher than suggested by previous assessments, showing that the choice methods during these assessments is important in determining the final outcome. We have also carried out a more detailed analysis of the vulnerability of the fisheries sector of the Caribbean SIDS using the same framework; this analysis shows the Caribbean SIDS are significantly more vulnerable to climate change than previous assessments have indicated. The fisheries sectors in the Greater Antilles and Lesser Antilles are particularly vulnerable to climate change.

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